Go south, young men!

'Go West, young man' is a quote by American author Horace Greeley concerning America's expansion westward, related to the then-popular concept of Manifest Destiny.

Greeley favoured westward expansion. He saw the fertile farmland of the west as an ideal place for people willing to work hard for the opportunity to succeed. The phrase came to symbolize the idea that agriculture could solve many of the nation's problems of poverty and unemployment characteristic of the big cities of the East. It is one of the most commonly quoted sayings from the nineteenth century and may have had some influence on the course of American history.

- Wikipedia

Currently we have our Malaysian version which will influence the course of Malaysian history, that of Pakatan Rakyat's 'Go South young men and women'.

And leading the charge is none other than 'young' 72-year old Lim Kit Siang of the DAP.

And why do I consider him as 'young' when he is already a grandfatherly 72?

Bear with my wee tng k'ooi (chong hei) in explaining my perception of him as one of those young men and women who'll be going south to Johor to change the course of Malaysian history.

There's a proud Aussie joke that an Aussie calls his enemies 'bastards' but his closest mates 'bloody bastards' wakakaka.

I understand (from my viewing of HK soaps) the Cantonese also use 'suoi chai' (naughty mischievous boy) as an affectionate term, I suppose with the affectionate 'chai' (kid) changing the nasty 'suoi' into an additional affectionate adjective.

In Penang we have almost similar use of seeming-derogatory descriptions to express our affections for a person, namely, kuai laan knia (naughty mischievous kid).

Well, Uncle Lim was a kuai laan knia when he voiced his intention to stand in Gelang Patah under a PAS banner if the Registration of Society (ROS) were to suspend or de-register the DAP as a political party just prior to the general election.

Wakakaka, truly a kuai laan knia's statement and, most certainly as a kuai laan knia, he is qualified to don the kaytee's description of him as a 'young' man wakakaka again.

On Friday, Malaysiakini published my letter titled Kit Siang in Johor will be as earth-shaking as 308 in which I state:

By now, everyone knows that veteran politician Lim Kit Siang will not stand in his current blue ribbon seat in Ipoh Timor in order to offer himself as an election candidate to the people of Gelang Patah in Johor to represent them in the next federal parliament.

His intention has struck terror in the BN camp, which has even drawn out former PM and Umno icon Dr Mahathir Mohamad to make what I see as a half-hearted but obligatory dismissal of the DAP man’s candidature in Gelang Patah.

Lim KS standing in and winning that Johor federal constituency will be as earth-shaking as the 2008 political tsunami. More than the BN’s fear of losing a federal seat, the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) knows that such an occurrence will virtually be its death knell, for a Lim KS victory will not only defeat Tan Ah Eng, its candidate in Gelang Patah, but will effectively strike right into its political heart.

So much is at stake for BN but no more than that for Lim KS.

I suspect that BN has now even considered using ROS (on top of EC) as a last desperate measure to handicap the DAP and prevent an already moribund MCA from becoming an overdue item in the obituary column.

Sadly on Friday, we see even Tunku Aziz, once a DAP senator and now its most virulent critic, urging ROS to suspend DAP pending its investigations into the party's central executive committee elections in December.

Apart from the fully and independently audited kosher-ness of DAP's polls, for him to make such a call at this stage when the general election is just around the corner, has been a tragic under-the-belt blow by a man we once held in dear affection and high regard.

At the height of his disagreement with Lim Guan Eng over the Berish 3 issue, I had even supported understanding of his anger at the younger man - see my posts:

(a) More of Tunku Aziz, and less of wannabe Che Guevera 

(b) DAP's comedy (or tragedy) of errors with Tunku Aziz.

So Tunku left DAP in merajuk fashion, despite DAP wanting Tunku Abdul Aziz to stay (Malaysiakini).

I had hopefully thought that was that, the end of an unfortunate misunderstanding, having in mind Tunku had professed friendship with young Lim's dad, Lim Kit Siang. 

But since then, as we all know, Tunku did something I didn't quite expect - he went on a crusade of disparagement against not just Lim Guan Eng but DAP the party, obviously forgetting both his original reason for joining the party (where he was nominated by the party to be a Senator) and his proclaimed friendship with Lim Kit Siang.

I was broken hearted by Tunku's actions but out of a personal liking for the patrician, had studiously avoided blogging against his inexplicable path of seeming vengeance against the DAP that he has lamentably decide to adopt. Biarkan sajalah.

See also my subsequent posts on him in my other (shared) blog BolehTalk:

(a) Tunku Aziz went beyond the pale and

(b) Noblesse oblige missing.

Be that as it was, the DAP is alert to a possible ROS action against the party at the eleventh hour, thus 'young man' Lim Kit Siang became the lateral-thinking kuai laan knia and proposed to stand as a PAS candidate in Gelang Patah.

I bet this would have shaken BN up even more, as well as delighted many in Pakatan. Let's see whether ROS will make those Pakatan supporters' wet dreams come true wakakaka.

Apart from MCA's wailing, railing, gnashing of teeth, casting of ashes on themselves, and the support of Dr Mahathir, Tunku Aziz, and now suspiciously and possibly ROS, I wasn't surprised, as I noted in my letter to Malaysiakini, that pro UMNO blogger Kadir Jasin also took up the cudgel against DAP in his blog post ‘Johor Ahoy, Here Comes Lim Kit Siang’.

Really, there is nothing new or substantial in Pak Kadir's post, with its core appeal or subtext being nothing more than the ‘Malay unity’ mantra again, telling or rather warning his readership of the alleged formidable DAP juggernaut once it has demolished MCA, with its so-called 30% solid Chinese voting bloc becoming presumably the feared pig-tailed Yellow Peril wakakaka, in contrast to what he bemoaned as Malay votes being split three ways among UMNO, PAS and PKR.

Of course he neglected to inform his readership of several truths, that firstly, the DAP isn't and won’t be the only Pakatan component party to win the Chinese votes which would also go to both PKR and PAS ... and that DAP is likely to garner quite a few Malay votes as well which probably was his (and UMNO's) true worries in his Malay-unity mantra chant.

Secondly and far more importantly, he failed or conveniently forgot to explain why the MCA and the Gerakan Party, two Chinese-based (or Chinese-majority) members of the BN, will not be obtaining any of the 30% Chinese votes in Johor.

If only he was brave enough to admit that DAP’s election strategy in Johor has been based in large part on the failures of the BN to satisfactorily represent the non-Malay voters there.

The conventional wisdom in political competition is that parties do not win but rather lose an election, thus DAP’s current concerted move into Johor, a hitherto BN fortress, is in anticipation of a major loss by the MCA in its traditional seats, an indication of the voting public’s lack of confidence in the Chinese-based BN party.

Pak Kadir has actually signalled this BN-MCA fear when he lamented that “the concentration of Chinese votes under one party [meaning DAP] would worsen further the already acute racial polarisation in the political arena.”

I remarked that it’s quite amusing Pak Kadir, a known Umno mouthpiece, who recently made disappointing remarks about the loyalty of Chinese in his earlier post ‘Sabah Incursion: Hang the Traitors’* could bring himself to pontificate about racial polarisation. A case of crocodile tears that by reptilian standard is even implausible, wakakaka.

* I responded to his sad snide smelly remarks in a letter to Malaysiakini and also in my post Chinese policemen.

Heeding the call for ‘young men and women to go South’ are Lim Chin Tong (DAP strategist and MP for Bukit Bendera, Penang) and M Kulasegaran (DAP MP Ipoh Barat) and chilli-padi sweetie hottie Fong Po Kuan (DAP MP Batu Gajah)

Lim Chin Tong

M Kulasegaran

chilli-padi sweetie hottie Fong Po Kuan

Together with Lim Kit Siang, they are the DAP's contribution to Pakatan vanguards to spearhead Anwar Ibrahim’s ascendancy to the PM post, at considerable risk to these intrepid DAP politicians who could have easily stay comfortably in their current seats and win easily in GE-13.

There's no guarantee of election victory. Whether their preparedness to serve as the parliamentary representatives of the people of Malaysia, especially Johor, even at risk of sacrificing their political careers, will succeed has to depend on the voters whom we hope will be left by the EC to exercise their rights in the universal suffrage of one person one vote.

Pakatan's other component party, PAS, is contributing with Sallehuddin Ayub, the Pakatan's designated MB if it wins the state and with HRH's approval.

Sallehuddin Ayub

Gasp gulp omigosh ... I heard incredible impossible implausibleness rumours that PKR may despatch Azmin Ali (thunderous applause please), Saifuddin Nasution (the heroic destroyer of Apcet II) and Tian Chua (Trawler of Tadpoles in Taiwan) to Johor to support the Pakatan's march to Putrajaya and thus fulfil Anwar’s dream of becoming PM, more so when these three are from Anwar's own PKR – wakakaka.

As I wrote in my letter to Malaysiakini in response to Pak Kadir’s jibe at Lim Kit Siang as an alleged rolling stone:

… he [Pak Kadir] also echoes the MCA, though in more subtle fashion, in criticizing Lim KS as a political rolling stone which presumably is unlikely to gather any moss, having contested in four states. Let me quickly correct the traditional impression of that out-dated proverb, for today we don’t want a politician to be slimy as gathered moss, so Lim KS and other DAP politicians should roll as much and as far as is necessary for the public good.

But perhaps Pak Kadir should not make comments out of context, by not mentioning that Lim KS’ courageous political career spans a period of almost 45 years. How could contesting in four states in almost half a century be unusual? Where the need arises for his presence, Lim KS would be there.

Also, unlike many BN politicians who prefer to huddle in safe and comfortable blue ribbon seats for their own political interests [wakakaka, thunderous applause please]  Lim KS is prepared to put his political career where his mouth is. He goes where his party wants him.

Good luck to the kuai laan knia and his kuai laan colleagues - oh how I adore you lovely brave bloody bastards wakakaka.